


Need To Talk What You Know

by mardia



Series: gossip folks [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, BB-8 Has Opinions, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, Pining, Poe Pretends To Have Chill, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 08:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6071683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mardia/pseuds/mardia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe sighs and goes into the breach. “Finn. He was trying to ask you out.”</p>
<p>“<i>Everyone’s</i> been trying to ask you out,” Nien mutters, turning back to his food.</p>
<p>(Originally posted <a href="http://themardia.tumblr.com/post/139529896001/for-the-ask-meme-finn-is-new-to-the-flirtation">on tumblr</a> for this prompt: <i>Finn is new to the flirtation thing, so it's a LOT when suddenly he's being hit on by just about every other person on base (because hello, have u seen him). poor poe is torn between being glad finn's getting all the love he deserves and SUFFERING because no...he loves him... most... </i>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Need To Talk What You Know

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from the song Gossip Folks by Missy Elliott.

It's not until the fifth time that Poe sees someone hitting on Finn that he finally intervenes. He's kept his distance before, because it's not his place and because Finn can handle himself, he's not the helpless baby bird that half of his pilots are convinced he is, but when he sees Finn getting cornered by one of the more… _direct_ mechanics on base, something about the wide-eyes look on Finn’s face has Poe getting up from his table in the mess hall with a low groan.

That, and the unsubtle elbows that Pava’s throwing into his side. “Relax, I'm going,” Poe mumbles out of the side of his mouth, rubbing at his sore ribs, and makes his way over to Finn, BB-8 rolling along at Poe’s side.

Finn catches sight of him, and the delighted smile on his face makes for a hilarious contrast with the disappointed look on the mechanic’s--his name is Bivtol, Poe recalls, and Poe gives him a wide, insincere smile, full of teeth, as he says, “Hey, buddy. Saw you over here, thought I’d come by and say hello, see if you wanted to sit with us for dinner.”

“Well, I just invited Finn to sit with me tonight,” Bivtol says pointedly, and Poe’s smile only gets wider. 

“That’s funny, because I originally asked Finn to have dinner with _us_ this morning,” he says, firmly, and tucks his hand in the crook of Finn’s elbow. 

“Um, another time, maybe?” Finn offers, because he is a sweetheart and a soft touch, and Poe barely waits for Bivtol’s face to light up before he’s tugging Finn away, BB-8 beeping indignantly at his heels. 

Finn, whose knowledge of Binary is improving by leaps and bounds, looks scandalized and hisses, “That’s _rude_ ,” tossing an apologetic look to Bivtol over his shoulder. 

BB-8’s barely getting started, something it makes very clear, but Poe calls him off, saying, “BB, take it down a notch,” and BB-8 subsides, but not before it makes a very pointed reference to certain organics being giant hypocrites.

“Sorry if I overstepped, but you seemed like you could use the out,” Poe says, before Finn can ask what BB-8 is talking about. 

“No, no, that was great,” Finn says immediately. “Not that Bivtol wasn’t nice! It was just, um. A little awkward.”

Poe shouldn’t prod further, he really shouldn’t-- “Yeah?” he asks, as they finally reach their usual table, everyone who’s already there shifting their trays to make room for Finn. “How so?”

“Well, he kept leaning in,” Finn says, in tones of sheer bafflement. “And he kept offering to show me around the base on the next restday, show me to some secluded spots, but that doesn’t make any sense, we’ve been here for a month and I already know my way around--”

Poe, taking his own seat, has to hold back a groan, keeping his poker face on as best he can. Others aren’t so circumspect--Snap and Nien Nunb are outright staring, Karé’s eyebrows are halfway up her forehead and still rising, and Jess looks like she’s two seconds away from burying her face in her hands from despair. 

Finn notices all the looks, and asks, defensively, “What?”

“Somebody’s going to tell him, right?” Snap asks the table at large. “I mean, I enjoy a good show as much as everyone else, but this is just pitiful.”

Finn turns to Poe at this, and Poe sighs and goes into the breach. “Finn. He was trying to ask you out.”

“ _Everyone’s_ been trying to ask you out,” Nien mutters, turning back to his food.

Poe ignores the twisting sensation in his chest at this and takes a long sip of his caf, watching Finn’s face as he works through this new revelation. And because Poe knows his friend so well, and because Finn’s face is always so open, he can see the exact moment when Finn rejects this possibility, shaking his head as he says, “But that doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes perfect sense,” Poe says, and his voice is not at all suggestive, it’s a simple _fact_ , there’s no need for Jess to give him that long look. 

Now Finn’s the one staring at Poe like he’s lost his mind, and he says flatly, “Not when you’re an ex-Stormtrooper it doesn’t.”

Poe opens his mouth to say what he thinks of _that_ , but Jess beats him to the punch. “Hmm, yeah, I can’t imagine why anyone would want anything to do with the hero who shook off a lifetime of conditioning by the First Order to save a man’s life, who helped destroy the Starkiller base and saved the entire galaxy in the process, and as if that wasn’t enough, held his own in a duel against Kylo Ren. Clearly they’ve all lost their minds.”

“There’s that, and also you’re gorgeous,” Karé offers up casually, before swallowing a spoonful of her blavat soup. 

Finn looks gobsmacked at this, gaping for a half-second before saying, “No, I’m not.”

“Oh, yes, you are,” Poe says automatically, before he can think twice, and Poe can feel his cheeks going hot as the entire table stares at him with a mix of amusement, interrogation, and--from BB-8’s direction at least--deep, deep judgment. 

Not Finn, though. Finn just looks surprised, his dark eyes a little wider than normal before he explains, stammering a little, “I mean, I know I’m okay-looking, I’m not blind--”

“Honey,” Jess says, taking over, “--you are very easy on the eyes, and I say this as someone who isn’t even into your gender.”

“You’re very handsome,” Karé confirms. “And I say this as someone who is into your gender.” It’s no more flirtatious than Karé’s usual comments are, but Finn’s eyes go huge in his face, and he opens and closes his mouth for a minute before very clearly giving up. 

“I don’t even know what to say to that,” he tells them, sounding both harassed and utterly confused. It’s an adorable look on him, but Poe’s conditioned by this point to find nearly everything Finn does appealing. “Should I say thank you?”

Karé looks even more amused by this question and says, shrugging her shoulders in that graceful way of hers, “If you want to, then sure.”

“You shouldn’t feel pressured to do anything,” Poe cuts in, because really, someone needs to be putting a stop to this, this nonsense. “If you want to take anyone up on their offers, then you can. If you don’t want to, then you don’t have to. It’s as simple as that.”

Finn’s quiet for a moment, thinking this over. Poe watches him do it, ignoring the way everyone else at the table is watching him right now--watching _them_ \--and as always, there’s a part of Poe’s mind cataloging the way Finn looks right now, the smooth skin of his face, his downcast eyes, the way he’s absently biting at his lower lip while he thinks. 

None of this is news, of course. No one would be surprised by the way Poe looks at Finn, the way his gaze can’t help but linger on Finn’s face, his body--everyone can already see it, except for Finn himself. 

Poe takes a breath, and says the rest of what he has to say. “And if you decided you wanted to take Bivtol up on his offer and have dinner with him tonight, then that’s okay too.”

From BB-8’s outraged whistles, at least one being at this table _strongly_ objects to this possibility, but Poe just knocks his foot against BB-8’s side in a silent warning and keeps his expression even while Finn mulls this, glancing back at the table where Bivtol’s sitting with some of his fellow mechanics. 

But then Finn shakes his head, turning back to look at Poe as he says, “Nah, I’m good here.”

“Okay,” Poe says, and despite all his fine intentions of not putting any pressure on Finn, of taking a step back and letting Finn have his own space to make his own decisions--despite all that, Poe is still smiling at this, too wide and obvious for any kind of plausible deniability. “Okay, that’s good, then.”

Finn returns his smile, looking equally pleased, and for a moment, everything is perfect--before Finn’s smile slides into a confused frown and he asks, “Uh, Poe? Why is BB-8 repeating the word ‘chickenshit’ over and over again?”

As the table bursts out into guffaws and snickers, Poe closes his eyes and prays for patience. “Because everyone at this table is determined to put me into an early grave,” he mutters, and as BB-8’s haranguing only rises in pitch, Jess claps him on the shoulder as she cackles by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> So I was going to originally just leave it here but it turns out I have more to say about Finn figuring out how this whole dating thing works in the Resistance and everyone else watching it like the galaxy's most gripping telenovela while Poe sits there and pines and pines...so there will probably be a sequel to this?
> 
> Also I'm on tumblr as themardia, as always, feel free to say hello!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] Need To Talk What You Know](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10872369) by [knight_tracer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_tracer/pseuds/knight_tracer)




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